12 Terrifying Neighbor Experiences That Could Happen to Anyone

Some neighbors bring cookies, others bring chaos. We expect friendly waves and borrowed sugar, but sometimes next-door life turns into a daily drama. From petty fights to boundary-crossing antics, these stories prove not everyone deserves a spare key — and after reading them, you might never see your neighbors the same way again.

• As an 18-year-old returning home late from a night out, a middle-aged neighbor came running out of her house in her nightgown. In a panic, she practically dragged me inside — I had never seen this woman before. Her husband, a firefighter who worked night shifts, was away, and in the center of her living room was a large spider trapped under a bowl. She was absolutely terrified. The whole scene had a surreal, almost cinematic quality — but fortunately, it was just a spider, not what it might have seemed. © Chasbrad / Reddit

• I moved into a new apartment, and the guy who lived upstairs was always yelling with his wife at night. Pretty much every evening. One day, they stop by to introduce themselves — young, good-looking, really nice people. We grab some coffee and chat. So I casually ask, “Hey, what’s with all the loud arguments every night?”
  The guy turns pale, looks at his girlfriend, and says, “I just got back from a two-week work trip. She was home alone.” I wanted to disappear. I just went, “Oh... must’ve misheard then.” He looks at her and goes, “We need to go home. Now.” The yelling that night was the loudest I’d ever heard.

• “We lived next to a family when I was younger, they were the worst people. They always threw trash in our lawn, and they had a Great Dane who would always run into our lawn. My dad talked to them a couple times, and they said there was nothing they could do.
  My dad took matters into his own hands one day and started picking the trash up with a shovel and catapulting it back into their yard. They were also very loud and obnoxious.” © EatsCrayons4ALiving / Reddit

• “My mom owns several Malamutes (big dogs, like Huskies), they have kennels and runs in the backyard. They howl when there’s a siren, and bark a little when they’re being fed. Been there for 20 years and no one ever had a problem. Several yippy dogs made a lot more noise.
  Then the trailer moves in across the road. Animal control is called out three times a week. Every time they come, they sit outside, hear nothing, and leave.
  Finding that that didn’t work, she started calling the city when our lawn went a week without being mowed. Said a bush (on city property) needed to be cut down. It was about 3 feet tall, with nothing but a mailbox anywhere near it.
  Screams profanities at my mother every time she’s working in the yard. The list goes on.” © Unknown author / Reddit

• My neighbor’s kids kept kicking their ball into our yard and demanding we toss it back. I told them to be careful around my flowerbeds.
  One day, I found every single bloom pulled out of the ground. Their mom came over that evening and said, “Kids will be kids. You should’ve planted something less breakable.”

• My neighbor trimmed my hedge—on my side. I asked her not to do it again, and she rolled her eyes.
  The next week, the entire hedge was gone. She said she “didn’t like the look of it.” I went to plant a new one. The next morning, every plant had been dug up and tossed on my lawn.

• “We had a neighbor whose child would wonder into people’s home and eat their food and go through their house. I’d come home to him in my room. My other neighbor said they came home from a movie to find him in the pantry eating and spilling everything. And the worst part is every time we’d chase him out, his parents would come complaining to US!” © ReadAlex / Reddit

• “I had a house with 2 other roommates and our landlord was our neighbor. At first, I thought it would be awesome because he would fix our problems quickly, because he was next door. It actually wasn’t.
  We would be without water for a day because he forgot to pay, and if we had people over, having them outside was not an option because it would be too loud, and none of us got the $400 deposits we paid back. I think his justification for not reimbursing us was that the windows were filthy.” © araesaenz / Reddit

• “I currently have a neighbor who only does one annoying thing: she leaves the window of an upstairs bedroom open year-round. So that her Pomeranian can sit in the window and bark at everything that moves.
  Everyone who comes to my house comments on the dog yapping. It sounds minor, but it’s been going on for years now. CLOSE THE WINDOW.” © maggiebennett / Reddit

• I noticed a camera pointed directly into our backyard. I knocked on my neighbor’s door. He said, “It’s for security.”
  I asked him to angle it down. He said, “Maybe stop sunbathing.” I put up a tall privacy screen. He started flying a drone instead.

• My neighbor kept parking in my driveway because “it’s more convenient”. I (35F) asked nicely five times for him to stop parking in my spot. He laughed: “Sue me!”
  So I had his BMW towed. He went absolutely insane, screaming threats. I just smiled. Big mistake.
  The next day, I walked outside, and my blood ran cold—I found that someone had dumped a huge bag of grass clippings and mulch all over my front steps and mailbox. It was petty, messy, and completely ruined my morning.

• I went on a three-day work trip and left a spare key with my neighbor down the hall so she could feed my cat. Last night I got back pretty late, opened the door, and heard snoring. I quietly go into my bedroom, and there’s the neighbor’s husband... sleeping on my bed... in his underwear. I was shocked!
  I woke him up and was like, “What is going on?” And he goes, “Hey, you should’ve warned me if you were coming back early.” While I was still trying to process that audacity, he grabbed his stuff and just went home silently. The next day, I went to confront my neighbor since I had given her the keys. And she tells me she had just had a fight with her husband, didn’t want to listen to him snore, and apparently thought it was a good idea for him to sleep at my place. I was even more stunned.
  I took the keys back and told her I wouldn’t be helping her again. A few days later, I changed the locks just in case. And I always thought she was a normal neighbor...

Here you’ll find heartwarming stories that prove there are still plenty of good people in the world.